Radio Response

            I found a Radio Show to watch off of This American Life. I watched an episode called Surrogates that was about people that could almost switch off because they were twins. Having only had a sibling that looks nothing like me, it seemed like an interesting subject.

            First off, it was weird listening to something like a radio show without being in the car. I’ve listened to NPR in the car sometimes on the way to school, but I’ve never listened to something off of my computer not driving around. It took me a little while to adjust to not seeing an image on the screen and get comfortable with getting information in this new media.

            The topic was really interesting. It started talking about a pair of twins that were co principals at a school and how they could switch off part way through tours and how they confused some of the students that were at their school. The principals confused a few of the students because they thought that it was only one man that could be in many places at the same time.

            They also brought in a pair of twins that didn’t get along and showed us that dynamic. All in all, I found it to be a very interesting topic. I now have a new appreciation and interest in talk radio.

Narrative Response

            For my Narrative film, I watched The East. This was recommended to me by one of my friends that go to a very environmentally friendly school who thought it was interesting to see a movie that depicted people with similar views to hers but on an extremist end. So I thought it would be good to watch it.

            The film was surprisingly well done. Most independent films do not have a lot of fancy props or extravagant scenes, but this movie could have easily been mistaken for being a normal Hollywood studio film. There were no dramatic action scenes, but there didn’t need to be. There was no plot point that required a violent or special effect filled scene.

            The main character I also found interesting. She was a very normal acting girl with a normal personality. She is seen enjoying many common things like fast food and hotel rooms. Her job is one of the only things that are unusual. She is a private investigator for a company that helps gather information to sign clients. She infiltrates a terrorist cell that attacks companies for not being environmentally friendly and the cell is full of extremist hippies.

            Slowly as the movie progresses she becomes more and more like the hippies she’s with. She starts eating food out of the trash, she becomes comfortable with other people bathing her and living in the woods. This film was very interesting and engaging. I really enjoyed seeing this kind of extremist people that I didn’t know anything about.

Documentary Response

            In all honesty, I do not watch that many documentaries. I have seen maybe six or seven in my entire life so I did not really know where to go to find one. I went on Netflix though and I looked in the documentary section and found a topic that interested me. Zombies.

            Now why Zombies interested me is because I am a huge horror movie fan, unless there are Zombies in the movie. Zombie usually bore me in horror movies because I find them not that scary and not that creative. When I saw The Truth Behind Zombies by National Geographic I started to wonder why people found Zombies interesting, so I watched it to learn what these people thought about Zombies.

            I actually enjoyed the documentary. I thought it was interesting having a combination of appropriated footage, interviews and images. The transitions between the three combined with the research were a very interesting format for a film to be presented. Normally I only watch narrative films so in was unusual to see a film in this format.

            I thought that the movie was pretty engaging and entertaining. In was interesting to watch a movie that has the complete opposite views as I have when it comes to the topic of Zombies. I never new where the idea of Zombies came from and I never knew what people that enjoyed Zombies thought about them. Even though I still don’t agree with their views, I can comprehend them and I found watching this movie to be a good experience.

Aleksandr Sokurov

The Good Quarter Final from Christopher Browne on Vimeo.

Rough Cut for Video Project

The Good Quarter Rough Cut from Christopher Browne on Vimeo.

Critique 1 Unedited Images

Critique 1 Diptych

Critique 1 Image 2

Critique 1 Image 1

Medium is the Massage Points

-Lost topic quickly due to pictures in between.
-Felt overwhelmed by the images, but interested by how the text played off them.
-The page where the thumbs represent the book really sicks out.

Response to How Laura Poitras Helped Snowden Spill His Secret

This really brings privacy into a very different perspective. The whole situation is a violation of privacy. Edward Snowden wishes to release these confidential documents, which is a violation of the privacy of the NSA, but the documents contain programs that show how the NSA has violated our privacy. In my opinion, Snowden is pulling a very risky move here. He is taking on an issues which is far over his head and is dragging people like Poitras into it.

I think Snowden is a little over zealous with his antistatism. Most people in the United States do not completely trust the government. That is how we function. We don't trust them to get everything done exactly how we want it, so we stay proactive in our politics so that our needs can be met. Many people do not trust the NSA and probably believe that the NSA was spying on them. Snowden may have the knowledge of exactly how they were spying on us, but to not as many people will it surprise that they were actually spying on us. I do not wish to know exactly how they are spying on me. In this day and age, there is very little privacy and I really don't want to know every way I am being spied on.

Response to "The Art of Peeping"

"The Art of Peeping" follows a 60 year old photographer who displayed a few controversial photos. He decided to take photos of people in glass walled apartments from his own glass walled apartment and then he displayed these photos. This caused a lot of controversy and there were even two people photographed who attempted to sue him. This really debates whether those apartments are private or not. If it is this easy for someone to take photos for a shoot, how easy would it be for someone else to simply see into your apartment at a private moment.

I found the photos and article a little unnerving. I personally would not live in a glass walled apartment for these exact reasons. It is far to easy for anyone to see in and in this case take pictures. I would not feel comfortable walking around a place knowing that I could be watched at all times. Looking at the pictures, I started to feel uneasy again for the people in the photographs. They are doing normal things and are blissfully unaware of the camera. That kind of lack of privacy is unsettling to me.

Gesture Repetition

List of what I did in 24 hours

Watched Soccer game with Nick, Pat and Luke

Stood up 

Walked to bus stop

Took bus with Nick and Luke

Walked to dorms

Found Kate and Sarah in the Lounge

Talked for a while.

Flipped off Nick jokingly

Went to room and changed

Went to the gym with Nick

Came home

Took a shower

Ran into Kay

Flipped off Kay jokingly

Went into room to study

Sam barged into room

Flipped off Sam trying to get him to leave

I continued to study.

Listened to music and went to bed

Woke up

Got dressed

Went into the bathroom to get ready

Grabbed my backpack

walked to people’s place

 Bought a coffee and a croissant

Ran into Josh.

Talked for a bit and went to class.

Left that class and walked back to the dorms

Ate lunch with Pat and Kate

Flipped off Pat during lunch

Cleared dishes and went back to dorms.

Grabbed my bags and left again for class

Came back from class to the dorms.

Changed for rugby practice

Went to rugby practice

Got dinner with friends from practice.

My Gesture:
When I'm around my friends, especially the people that live on the floor of my door room, I tend to flip them off jokingly. Though in most circumstances this gesture is considered obscene, the way I am using it is more in a social aspect to show mild frustration and to pass it off in a humorous manner. On the sides of this post are the picture I took of everyone and everything I flipped off after I took note of what I did for 24 hours. As you can see, most of the faces they make are funny, staged faces because they thought the

pictures were also humorous. I took a picture from the point of my finger and got the person or object I was flipping off in the frame. When the person had walked away before I had taken the picture, I called them back and got them to walk back into the shot. Some of the objects in here were just me frustrated with a homework assignment and flipping off the wall. The object in the bottom right though does have a little more significance. The bottom right is our dorm building, Lawrinson, which had it's second fire drill in about the second week that we have been here. I flipped the building off out of frustration for having to walk down then back up 15 flights of stairs right after having rugby practice.

Test Post: People of Different Powers

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Top: More Power on the Left. Less Power on the right.
Bottom: Self on the Left. Same amount on the right.